How to order a library
As I mentioned in a different blog post, I choose my books based on their titles and how they resonate with the topics I'm most interested in. This book was no exception and motivated me to take action and order my private library!
Order
There isn’t a strict recipe to Order a library and the author Roberto Calasso put it in the following manner:
The perfect order isn’t possible simply because entropy exists.
Books have lives of their own. They coexist with all the other books you have on your shelves. The order could be by author, topic, interest, acquisition date, or reflect different periods of your life or the limitations of space for storage. The author also references Aby Warburg, a German art historian and cultural theorist, and his 'Golden Rule' of good neighbour books. This rule suggests that the book you are searching for is often positioned alongside the book that will hold great value to you. This might seem strange, but it makes a lot of sense being evident both in public libraries and in your private collection (provided it holds a substantial number of books). While browsing library shelves, searching for specific books you often find yourself glancing at the books beside them, becoming more captivated by them than by your initial search.
In a standard manner, public libraries are ordered by topics, either Economics or Engineering and within those categories, there will be different book agglomerations such as Mechanical, Civil, Electronics etc. But this will not be the case for private libraries, take a look at how you order your books!
Reading
The author cites Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, essayist, and founder of the London Library once said:
A book is an object that requires concentration, the reader must be alone with it!
There are several questions that we can take away from this book.
How many books do you have?
I do not count my books! I buy them because in that particular moment, the subject or the title provided me with some resonance, and I would like to read it shortly, even if, for some reason, I have too many books in process (normally 6 to 10).
Have you read all your books integrally?
Roberto Calasso writes, that one day a Finnish lady asked his father if he “read all the books he possesses integrally?”. He states that “some books, by their nature, are made for consulting or browsing”, there’s no reason for you to read all the books or every chapter from a book.
Do you recall all the facts you’ve read in the books?
The benefit of reading is the resonance of what is written on the book’s pages and how it interacts with your ideas. Books are full of facts, and they persist after you read them. The important takeaway is how your mind was transformed after the reading. Some books will compel you to take action, and these are the ones I enjoy reading!
There’s plenty I could write about two of the four essays I’ve read here: How to Order a Library, and How to Order a Bookstore, both captured my full attention!
I strongly recommend this book, to any Bibliophile!